Wednesday, 29 August 2012

Wow. ‘Everything Must Go’ is breath-taking in its laid-bare honesty. Rosie Garland’s poems tell of her battle with cancer from the moment she’s told until she receives the news its in remission. It’s not a pitiful or melodramatic narration, or even negative – Rosie expresses her experiences; her initial numbness and shock, her hair loss, her sickness, the wanting to disappear, the hospital, the pain and weakness, the treatment, the loss of her feminity – it’s heart-breaking but Rosie is so strong in her poems that’s it’s somewhat uplifting. My personal favourites from the collection are ‘Camouflage’ and ‘Dignity’. Quite stunning and bought a tear to my eye.

Tuesday, 28 August 2012

I run poetry writing workshops for just about anyone – 5 to 105-year-olds of any background or level of ability or need – but I find that by far the most rewarding group to work with are teens with mental health problems and I am fortunate to have done so in numerous settings over the years.

Most recently I finished a 10-month project with a London-based special school for such youngsters (a client of mine for the last six years) that was funded by a major UK charity. It is likely to be re-funded next year as the results were so impressive despite the fact that the teens' problems include self-harm, suicide attempts, anorexia, manic depression, schizophrenia etc and they come from backgrounds where they have normally been seriously abused physically, emotionally and/or sexually.

So how do you get some of the most challenging young people to produce something as 'uncool' as a poem? I'd like to offer some suggestions by outlining what works for me and perhaps could work for you too:

1. Be yourself. Don't try and 'get down with the kids' as it just doesn't work as they spot any attempt to be cool a mile off!

2. Don't be nervous about their conditions or situations. The young people are generally very aware of their issues and discuss them amongst each other. So if you feel someone cannot produce a poem because they are not up to it mentally at the time of your session, don't avoid them – ask them how they feel and how you can help.

3. Don't be too 'teachery'. If you run workshops of course you ARE a teacher of sorts but worksheets, whiteboards and detailed discussions about metaphors and similes do not work for me with these young people. Be far less structured and more informal. I find many such teens incredibly intelligent, full of ideas and frequently excellent at expressing themselves. BUT what you need to provide is the motivation and inspiration to get them moving and then to see there work through. My style is comedy poetry – that helps too as comedy is a great ice-breaker.

4. Concentrate on you performing, them writing and then sharing together. Although very expressive with words on paper some of the teens are far less vocal when it comes to sharing or performing poetry as what they produce is often deeply personal and their conditions also may hold them back when it comes to reading aloud. But DO try it – sit in a circle, go round one by one and don't apply any pressure, only encouragement. If someone wants to opt out then ask them again when you complete a second lap of the circle. Don't get them to read each other's poems as they normally cannot put them across in the correct way and often stumble to read the writing. And if you step in to read one of their poems they will ALL ask you to read their work!

5. Get staff to help. Staff will know the students better than you so get them involved one-to-one with some of the most challenging ones so you can circulate and help everyone (inc those in the one-to-one). If staff have time to write poems too that's great as them leading by example always helps your cause and will motivate the students.

6. Timing is important. Many of these young people will find it hard to wake up in the morning, especially if on heavy medication or very depressed, so 10am is a good time to start or just after a lunch, but not too late as they will tire by the end of the day. 60-90 mins is the ideal session length – no longer. Speak to the staff too about cigarette breaks for them as many will be smokers and need time out to help their mental focus.7. Pick your theme. I never ask people with mental health problems to write about their conditions. Like most people they have opinions and wish to express themselves on a huge range of topics and are probably fed up discussing the state of their mind. Keep the topics broad and let them interpret them as they want. They WILL often bring their mental health issues into their writing even on the most seemingly unrelated themes but when they chose to do that it's fine as writing for them can be extremely theraputic and a way for them to crystalise the many conflicting emotions and thoughts they hold in their heads.

8. Taboos. I have only one explicit no-go area: no writing about anyone in the school/unit whether staff or pupil, even if the writer thinks it is a positive comment. However, you need to recognise that, due to their backgrounds and more so then regular teens, they might wish to test your boundaries with sexually explicit terms, bad language or overtly violent themes. You need to judge very carefully what is a genuine sad tale that needs to be told as opposed to something that is tokenistic and done for effect to shock you or others. A word with staff before the session is the best way to handle this so you can know what to expect. I have never had a problem here as a result.

Friday, 24 August 2012

Join
some of the finest British poets working today - JOHN AGARD, CAROL
LEEMING, GRACE NICHOLS and DALJIT NAGRA - for an alternative A to Z of
the nation.

All our guests feature in the new anthology Out Of Bounds (Bloodaxe
Books) a newly-charted map of Britain, as viewed by its black and Asian
poets. It takes the reader on a riveting, sensory journey through
Scotland, England and Wales, showing the whole country from a fresh
perspective.

This extensive and ground-breaking anthology stops off in the
Highlands and Islands, skirts the North East coast from Whitley Bay to
the sands of Bridlington, wanders lonely through the Lake District and
Yorkshire, climbs the mountains of Wales before descending to the Black
Country and Southern England. Along the way it takes in lochs and
landmarks from Glasgow's George Square and the Angel of the North to the
London Eye and the Long Man of Wilmington.

John Agard is the multi-award winning author of
numerous publications and is widely regarded as a national treasure. A
champion of reading and literature and a former librarian, journalist
and teacher of languages. His work has been taught on the GCSE syllabus
since 2002.

Carol Leeming is a Leicester born, poet, playwright, singer and
songwriter. She has performed her poetry at festivals, regional theatres
and on BBC Radio. Carol curates poetry for performance, digital
installations and writes for local and national arts cultural magazines.

Grace Nichols is a multi-award winning author and poet born and
raised in Guyana. Nichols' publications inlcude poetry and novels for
adults and story books for children. Her poetry is featured in the
English/English Literature GCSE anthologies.

Daljit Nagra comes from a Punjabi background. He was born and raised
in London then Sheffield. He has won several prestigious prizes for his
poetry, including Forward Prize for Best Individual Poem and Best First
Collection.

'Out of Bound's is a definitive anthology that brings together new and
established black and Asian writers and places them firmly on the map
of what is great and not so great about Britain. Edited by Jackie Kay,
James Procter and Gemma Robinson, other contributors include Shanta
Acharya, Patience Agbabi, Moniza Alvi, James Berry, Jean 'Binta' Breeze,
Vahni Capildeo, Merle Collins, Fred D'Aguiar, David Dabydeen, Imtiaz
Dharker, Bernardine Evaristo, Khadijah Ibrahiim, Linton Kwesi Johnson,
Tariq Latif, Sheree Mack, Jack Mapanje, E.A. Markham, Louisa Adjoa
Parker, Michelle Scally-Clarke, Seni Seneviratne, John Siddique, Lemn
Sissay, Dorothea Smartt, Wole Soyinka, Derek Walcott and Benjamin
Zephaniah.

Presented by renaissance one in association with The British Library. This event is supported by Bloodaxe Books.

Thursday, 23 August 2012

Winnie the
Witch and her black cat Wilbur have been delighting children with their
magical capers for 25 years. The fun, and often chaotic, stories by
Valerie Thomas are illustrated in immense detail by the brilliant Korky
Paul. Thus creating a collection of stories that delight young readers
and entertain them for hours.

Winnie the Witch
is available in 12 original fantastic picture books (written by Valerie
Thomas), plus 3 treasury collections, a sticker book and special 25th
anniversary edition of the first ever Winnie book, ‘Winnie the Witch’.
There are also 15 young reader fiction books (written by Laura Owen),
both series are illustrated by Korky Paul. The Winnie the Witch series
has sold over five million copies worldwide and has been translated into
over twenty-five languages.

I have a
4-year-old daughter who adores Winnie the Witch picture books and it is
quite usual to return from the library with every Winnie the Witch book
they have on the shelves! And she asks to read them with us again, again
and again. It’s just brilliant, as a parent, to see the enthusiasm, the
laughter and pure enjoyment my daughter gets from the Winnie the Witch
series. She also refers to her auntie’s black cat as Wibur now too!

Due to my
daughter’s obsession with Winnie the Witch, we have read all of the
Winnie the Witch books, including the treasury editions!:

Each story Winnie
utters her famous spell-cast of ‘Abracadbra’, which usually sees chaos
ensure! Not only are the stories great and easy to follow, the
illustrations completely transform the stories to a new level. They are
so detailed, from Winnie’s hairy legs and washing line on the roof, to
the millions of items in her kitchen or flowers in her garden. The ‘end
papers’, (the pages that come before and after the story) are always
drawn by children and are based on the story of the book they appear in.
It’s a lovely touch, and my daughter enjoys looking at these and
explaining the pictures to us!

It would be great
to see Winnie the Witch merchandise available, and of course more
Winnie the Witch books! We’re excited to hear that ‘Winnie’s Dinosaur
Day’ (ISBN 978-0-19-279403-1) is due out in March 2013 (picture book).

For all the
teachers out there the publisher, Oxford University Press (OUP) offer a
free Winnie the Witch teacher resource pack for both picture books and
the fiction series. You can download the pack here
http://www.oup.com/oxed/children/winnieteacherpack/.

For fans of
Winnie the Witch, you can visit Winnie at www.winnie-the-witch.com to
find out about the authors, the books and much, much more!

Wednesday, 22 August 2012

The annual book festival returns with guests including PD James,
Nick Robinson, Ian Rankin, Jack Straw, and Kate Mosse, and a new version
of Rapunzel by balletLORENT, written by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy.

The programme for the 2012 Durham Book Festival was unveiled at a
launch event at Crook Hall in Durham on Wednesday 15 August, which
included a special appearance by Rachel Joyce, whose recent novel, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, has just been longlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

This year’s festival takes place from 13th-30th October, in venues across Durham city and county.

Among its varied programme of prose writers, politicians, poets and
philosophers, Durham Book Festival is proud to be hosting the world
premiere of Rapunzel, written by the Poet Laureate, Carol Ann
Duffy. Carol Ann was commissioned by New Writing North, on behalf of
Durham Book Festival, to write a new version of the classic Brothers
Grimm fairytale for the modern age, which has been made into a new show
by award-winning choreographer Liv Lorent and her company balletLORENT.
Following the premiere in Durham, the production will tour the UK and
play at Sadler's Wells in London.

Durham Book Festival is the North East's biggest annual celebration of
books. The festival is produced by New Writing North for Durham County
Council and supported by Durham University and Arts Council England.
This year the festival welcomes on board a host of new supporters
including Banks Group, Eversheds, Muckle LLP, Redbox Design Group,
Dickinson Dees, Sunderland University, Swinburne Maddison and
Northumbrian Water, and retains its partnership with the Radisson.

'Fire Spell’

Set in the 1860s, this charming tale of magic, tragedy and unlikely
friendships, is a fantastic story that will enthral and delight.

Grisini is a conman, puppet-master and magician, though he uses his
magic for wrong-doing. He’s a cruel and greedy master. He ‘adopts’
Parsefall, an orphaned boy he ‘rescued’ from the workshouse and
Lizzie-Rose, the orphaned daughter of an actor and actress. They live in
squalor in a London boarding house, where the kind but drunk Mrs
Pinchbeck looks out for the children. Grisini has taught Parsefall how
to steal, pick locks and to work the puppets. Parsefall is uneducated
and fearful of his master. Lizzie-Rose is a young lady, well bought up
and educated but fallen on hard times with the death of both her
parents. She plays the music for their travelling puppet show and keeps
an eye on Parsefall, who she cares for like a brother.

When Clara Wintermute asks her parents for the puppet show to be bought
into their house for her brirthday, they finally reluctantly agree. They
have lost 4 children to Cholera, with Clara the only surviving child,
and their house has been in mourning ever since. Little do they know
that Grisini will kidnap their child, turn her into a puppet and steal
her away.

If that’s not enough to be going on with, there is then Cassandra or
‘Madama’, a powerful witch, whose power comes from the fire opal – yet
this power is set to destroy her, as it has those before her who owned
the wishing stone. All destroyed by fire. The only way to free herself
from its curse is to have someone steal her stone. Madama knew Grisini
along time ago and as she is more powerful than him, she calls Grisini
to her as he always wanted the fire opal for himself and his own dark
ways. Grisini is too smart to steal it himself, so suggests she invited
the children to come and stay at her huge home in Windermere. They’ll
steal it he assures her, thinking he’ll have the power of the stone
without the curse.

The children have discovered Clara’s puppet in their master’s absence,
and still reeling from the shock that he hit them and then fell down the
stairs, to what they thought was his death. They wonder about Grisini,
how bad he actually is and when a letter from Madama arises inviting
them to her home as she’s dying and looking to leave her worldly goods
to them, Lizzie Rose and Parsefall make the journey to Windermere, not
realising how much this will change their life, and Clara’s …

This is a spell-binding tale, wrought with tragedy and triumph. It’s
refreshing to have such an exciting story told in one novel – no
sequels, no waiting to find out what happens next!

Monday, 20 August 2012

It's now nearly four months since World Book Night 2012 and we're turning our thoughts to plans for 2013. We want to know which books you want to see featured as next year's World Book Night books.

Like last year the final list of books for 2013 will be decided on by
an independent editorial committee made up of representatives from
booksellers, libraries, the literacy sector, authors, and journalists,
and will this year be chaired by Mariella Frostrup.

The committee's choice of titles will be informed by the hundred most
nominated books so be sure to tell us what books you want to see
featured. You have until August 31 to nominate your books and you can see a live and constantly evolvingtop 100 now.

This year we really want you to think about the books that you think
will make those who don't regularly read fall in love with reading as
well as the books that you love the most.

What are we looking for?

Quite simply, great books that make you fall in love with reading (and
what we think makes a book great is quite different to what academics
or critics might)

Any genre of book – fiction or non-fiction, crime, thrillers, romance,
sagas, sci-fi, fantasy, classics, literature, poetry, biography, young
adult – anything! But we are looking for 'best in class' in each area

They have to have a story (so any non-fiction has to be narrative driven)

Not too long (though we will never rule against a book based on length but shorter books are more accessible)

Must have been published in paperback in the UK

And please don’t nominate books or authors that were featured in World Book Night 2011 or 2012. You can see the 2012 list here and the books that featured in 2011 here.

How do I submit my favourite books?

1. Go to http://www.worldbooknight.org/
2. Sign in or register via our homepage
3. Go to 'nominate books' under the 'books' tab and type your favourite
book by title or author in to the search box. If your book doesn't show
please double check that you've spelled it correctly. Books that are
out of print or aren't available in paperback won't come up when you
search for them
4. You can keep an eye on the titles you selected and view a live, interactive list of the top 100here

Thursday, 16 August 2012

Man Booker Live is an exciting new initiative for 2012.The
Man Booker Prize for Fiction has partnered with Picturehouse
Entertainment to broadcast ‘Prize Readings,’ an evening with the 2012
shortlisted authors at the Royal Festival Hall at London’s Southbank
Centre on Monday 15th October.

Taking
place on the eve of the winner announcement, the shortlisted authors
will be reading and discussing their work in front of an audience hosted
by one of the UK’s favourite broadcasters, Radio 4’s James Naughtie.

Tickets for Man Booker Live will go on sale this Friday, 17th August, at cinemas across the UK.

For
the first time booklovers nationwide will be able to enjoy and
participate in the shortlist event at their local cinemas. For avid
followers of the Man Booker Prize and bookgroups everywhere, the evening
promises lively discussion and a unique opportunity to see world-class
writers the night before the winner of the £50,000 prize is decided.

Ion
Trewin, Literary Director of the Booker Prize Foundation, comments: “We
are delighted to be partnering with the Southbank and Picturehouse and
to be able to share, for the first time, the occasion with readers all
over the country.”

The
shortlist of six will be announced on 11th September from a longlist of
12 authors, announced on 25th July. The longlisted authors are: Nicola
Barker, Ned Beauman, André Brink, Tan Twan Eng, Michael Frayn, Rachel
Joyce, Deborah Levy, Hilary Mantel, Alison Moore, Will Self, Jeet Thayil
and Sam Thompson. For up to date information on the Man Booker Prize
please visit www.themanbookerprize.com

Man Booker Live is taking place at cinemas across the UK, for more information and tickets please visit: www.picturehouses.co.uk

Wednesday, 15 August 2012

I grew up among dragons: they were my playmates, my antagonists, the object of my expeditions to abandoned train tracks and chalk pits. I thought about them, dreamt about them and, when I decided that I was definitely going to be a palaeontologist around the age of eight, it was thanks to my love of dragons, and not the other way around. Oh, alright, perhaps it was a trip to the British Museum of Natural History to see the T. Rex skeleton but still, my love of dragons went right back to when my mother would hum 'Puff the Magic Dragon' and I would wish that I could go to Honalee and never grow up, just like Puff.

I thought I was lucky: there were plenty of books with dragons in them, from the Ice Dragon in 'Postgate' and Firmin’s 'Noggin the Nogg' sagas, to E Nesbitt’s wonderful 'Book of Dragons', to Smaug, of course, in Tolkein’s 'The Hobbit' to Eustace Scrubb, who turns into a dragon in C.S. Lewis’s 'Voyage of the Dawn Treader'. As soon as the first boxed set of rules for 'Gygax' and Arneson’s 'Dungeons and Dragons' became available in Britain my dragon-loving friends and I became avid fans, designing and dungeon mastering our own intricate realms full of quests and fantastical beasts.

All of this, of course, set me to reading the timeless myths and legends about dragons: from the battling red and white dragons found my Merlin under Vortigern’s castle, to Saint George, to Perseus and all of the Greek sagas, to the mighty Beowulf, and many more. So what is it about these creatures? Why did I keep wanting more of the same stuff? Was I nuts? After all, things called dragons don’t even share the same traits. They are mostly scaly, usually winged, almost always fire-breathing, come in all sorts of colours, usually have one head, sometimes have four legs, and a lot of them live in caves, hoard treasure and have bad attitudes. For me I think it was all about seeking out the miraculous and magical, of escaping from the every day into worlds that might exist, just around the corner, full of good and bad. And dragons might sometimes be good and wise, but they can certainly be bad in ways that must have impressed the earliest stone age hunter gatherers, and they probably took a lot of impressing. After all, it won’t have been long before mere lions, tigers and bears ceased to be an everyday threat to our ancestors. There’s a man-eating lion or tiger around? We’ll round up a posse and bring him back on a pole before sundown. Lions, tigers and bears must soon have learned to respect puny but clever humans with their spears and irritating traps and projectile weapons. But dragons? Think again. Gigantic, muscular, powerful, avaricious, they burn down homes with fire, pillage treasures, steal princesses, and they had insatiable appetites, like a terrible incarnation of an entire invading army. Brave but hopelessly outmatched posses would wiped out in a few minutes, leaving no option but to draw lots to see who gets eaten first, and hold out for a hero. Stirring stuff indeed.

Dragons, like all worthy storybook enemies, are clever, powerful, almost impossible to outwit or defeat, so that you stand very little chance of surviving an encounter with them, then even less chance right up until the final last minute when suddenly some tiny thing goes right — you remember they have a weak spot, you are saved by an unanswerable riddle — and defeat turns to victory at last. Which leads me to a final consideration: I thought I was lucky as a boy that there were so many wonderful books featuring dragons. How much luckier, then, are the dragon lovers of today! They have all the books I had, but they also have Rowling’s 'Harry Potter' books, Jasper Fforde’s 'The Last Dragonslayer' series, Chris d’Lacey’s 'Fire Within' books and Cressida Cowell’s 'How to Train Your Dragon' among many, many others, most of which have very clever twists on the old formula. There is scant evidence that the everlasting appeal of dragons is on the wane. On the contrary, for a dragon-lover, now is probably the best time there has ever, ever been!

This is the much-awaited final instalment of The Dragonology Chronicles. Fans of the series – which has sold over 350,000 globally, will be gripped by the mystery that Dr Drake and his apprentices Daniel and Beatrice have to solve. Age-old rivalries rear their heads, battles between the powers of good and evil are fought and the protagonists find themselves in grave danger as they strive to save the dragons.

Enjoy the thrilling adventure, the gripping action and the brilliant story-telling!

Highly recommended for readers aged 10+

***

A huge thank you to Dugald A Steer for his fantastic guest blog for us. If you'd like to find out more about The Dragonology Chronicles please visit Templar Publishing.

Each
week there will be a different special guest head-liner poet and on Thursday
13th September the head-liner is the awe-inspiring ... Mike Garry!

---

ACCLAIM FOR MIKE GARRY:

"Genius" Peter Saville

"Gritty" John Cooper Clark

"Top Manc Street Poet" Shaun Ryder

Author of recent BBC commission poetry collection 'God Is A Manc',
Bang Said The Gun: Manchester are proud to be kicking off the start of
their second season of dates with the true poet laureate of the north.

If
underpants, sex, gravy and Keith Moon giving the Queen Mother drumming
lessons are your thing, then this could be the verbal romp you’ve been
waiting for ...

Bang Said The Gun in London is considered one of the best poetry
nights in the country and has recently been reaching over 4 million
viewers on Channel 4’s Random Acts.

Repeating this winning
formula, its Manchester’s first weekly poetry night celebrating the
best in local and national poets as well as offering audience members
the chance to compete ... for the coveted **Golden Gun prize** in the Top Banana Open Mic!

Each week's Golden Gun prize winner is offered a guest set at a
future Bang Said The Gun: Manchester! First come, first on open mic so
get down early if you wanna be on. Or, just come join the crowd to
listen and cheer for a top notch night out.

Monday, 13 August 2012

Few
people can have worked so hard on behalf of literature and poetry in
the north-east region as Gordon Hodgeon, or for so long. Gordon is a former chair
of New Writing North, as well as having served as chair of the
literature panel of Northern Arts, and vice-chair of Cleveland Arts, not
to mention his work at NATE, Brotton Writers, the Writearound Festival,
Hall Garth Writers, and Mudfog Press.

Following a series of unsuccessful spinal operations in 2010,
Gordon was confined to bed and wheelchair, unable to move his arms and
legs and unable to breathe without the help of a ventilator. Coming to
terms with a gradually narrowing view on the world, he began writing a
new book of poems. Some were dictated to visiting friends and to staff
in the rehabilitation unit in Peterlee where he has spent the last two
years. Others were typed using Dragon voice-recognition software.

A new collection, Still Life, is the result. It is partly a study in
disability and mortality, partly a praise-song for the ‘paralysed
jellyfish’ of the quadriplegic body. It is a book about learning to live
in a new element, about helplessness and loss. But it is mostly a book
about living, a wonderfully energetic and sharply humorous celebration
of the fact of being alive – the birth of a granddaughter, the slow
changing of the seasons through the hospital window and the strange
music of the ventilator filling and emptying his lungs through the
night.

‘After’ is the fourth and final title in this gripping, harrowing, award-winning series. Following on from ‘Once’, ‘Then’ and ‘Now’, ‘After’ takes us back to when Felix was 13 in 1945. We join Felix hiding from the Nazis under Dom the horse’s stable floor in a hole for 2 years, cared for by Gabriek who brings him food, water and things to ‘educate’ him. After 2 years and 2 months Felix staggers from his hiding place to save Gabriek from harm … this leads Felix into the secret and dangerous world of the Partisans. After passing their initiation he joins them in their attempts to kill and destroy the Nazis. The books ends with Felix in a concentration camp, as a medical worker helping those who’ve been left to die when the Nazis fled after they’d lost the war. Felix, again in ‘After’, makes friends and loses them, sees, hears and does things that no one, especially a child, should ever have to.

This whole series is gripping, they are difficult to read as the subject matter is very real, but they should be read. They educate the reader and at the same time tell a story in way that is accessible to children. The books are written beautifully, you share Felix’s passion, heartache, terror, losses, you completely empathise with his character and respect his courage, bravery and will to survive despite the horror and trauma he’s had to endure for the last 6 years.

The books are written so you can read them as a ‘stand alone’ story, or in any order. Definitely read all 4 to get the full understanding of Felix’s story. It is after all our history and it’s a part of history that should never be repeated.

Highly recommended for readers 9+

***

Every year on 27th January, the world marks Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD). Holocaust Memorial Day provides an opportunity for everyone to learn
lessons from the Holocaust, Nazi persecution and subsequent genocides
and apply them to the present day to create a safer, better future.

The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT) is a charity which works to raise awareness of HMD. You can find out more about they do by visiting their website.